


Review of “Judgement” Minecraft Undertale Music Video

by ArgentDandelion



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Animation, Gen, Genocide Route Sans (Undertale), Music Video Review, Nonfiction, Reviews, Undertale Genocide Route, Undertale Neutral Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2020-09-30 12:07:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20446898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentDandelion/pseuds/ArgentDandelion
Summary: A thorough review of EnchantedMob™'s video “Judgement” | Minecraft Undertale Music Video [GENOCIDE] (Song by TryHardNinja).





	1. Main Review

_(To read about the video’s good parts, see “Scene Composition, Shots, and Artistic Choices”)_

[Introduction  
](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/174382546390/review-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music#codeword1)1._[ Bad Expressions](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/174382546390/review-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music#codeword2)_  
2\. _[Death Animation](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/174382546390/review-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music#codeword3)_  
3\. _[Route Inconsistency](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/174382546390/review-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music#codeword4)_  
4\. [“So I’ve Got a Question For You.”  
5\. ](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/174382546390/review-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music#codeword5)[Scene Composition, Shots, and Artistic Choices](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/174382546390/review-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music#codeword6)  


* * *

**Introduction**

EnchantedMob™ are skilled at animation, as their previous _Undertale_ video, [“Hard Drive”](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dfy3918azitQ&t=OTA4MjIwNjhhOGQzY2JmNGQ1MzgwZDQ2NDZhNjAxOTAyOGM4NTYzYixiZ3NIdXVvUA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F174382546390%2Freview-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music&m=1)illustrates. I was expecting [“Judgement”](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DX3yYkZj9QPQ&t=NGJjMzlkZTcyZjgzYWRmODM2ZGM5MDU0OGFjNjQzNDE2ZGJiY2NmOCxiZ3NIdXVvUA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F174382546390%2Freview-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music&m=1) to be of similar quality…and it was not.

While “Hard Drive” wasn’t absolutely perfect (I have a few nitpicks about seemingly easy-to-fix parts of Mettaton’s face) “Judgement” had a lot more flaws. Or, more precisely, it had only a few flaws, but two of those were so severe it severely affected the quality of the video.

**Bad Expressions**

The greatest flaw in the video is how badly Sans’ mouth was handled. Rather than having a [Glalie](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fbulbapedia.bulbagarden.net%2Fwiki%2FGlalie_%28Pok%25C3%25A9mon%29&t=NTZlYjllNGY3NThmN2I5MWUyYzcxZDgxNDQzM2JmMGJhOTUwOTNkNixiZ3NIdXVvUA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F174382546390%2Freview-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music&m=1)-like perma-grin, his mouth is structured and operates like the genocidal human’s. As he is apparently singing the song in-universe, his mouth opens and closes almost constantly, covering his two rows of small, inconspicuous teeth as if he had lips. In fact, at several points in the video his teeth aren’t visible at all with an open mouth, making him look toothless.

The second-biggest flaw is Sans’s massive and very unfitting eyebrows. If one looks closely at his sprites, not once is Sans shown with eyebrows, not even minimal eyebrows that show up only for specific expressions.

Between the mouth and eyebrows, Sans is too expressive, and in the wrong ways: his mouth and eyebrows seem to “bounce” everywhere. It is clear from the game’s sprites that Sans emotes primarily through his big eyes, with his mouth largely frozen in place. Here, Sans is excessively expressive, at times looking overly friendly. His out-of-character expressiveness also alters the overall feel of the moment he dies. Rather than giving a brief grimace with a shocked/startled look when the fatal blow is dealt, he looks sad/betrayed/panicked.

Between the behavior of the eyebrows and mouth, he’s so “off-model” (even by the standards of Minecraft’s limitations) and out-of-character that he doesn’t look like Sans at all, but someone poorly cosplaying him. Apparently, though EnchantedMob ™ does very well with highly expressive characters (e.g., Mettaton from “Hard Drive”) they have yet to learn how to handle inexpressive ones. (Sans here, and Five Nights at Freddy’s robots)

I could go on and on about this (previously this section was 622 words) but, in short, it wasn’t actually necessary to give Sans eyebrows and a humanlike mouth if EnchantedMob™ wanted him to convey a variety of emotions. There are other methods—methods EnchantedMob™ knows—that could have been used by themselves, such as eyelid-based expressions and shrinking Sans’ pupils in shock.[1](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/174382546390/review-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music#fn:1)

* * *

**Death Animation**

How EnchantedMob™ handles monsters dying in a serious flaw. Lesser Dog, Undyne, and Toriel are shown collapsing to the ground, but not turning to dust. As some monsters (Toriel, Papyrus) speak a few sentences before dying, one could argue monsters don’t have to turn to dust immediately upon the final blow being dealt. Yet the way their bodies linger on screen, with the screen’s shaking drawing attention to it, just emphasizes how they aren’t turning to dust like they should.

It’s not that EnchantedMob™ has to show an impressive turning-to-dust animation: TechnicalAntonym depicted monster death correctly by showing it indirectly: for example, Frisk travels through the Ruins with a pile of dust (probably Toriel’s) in the foreground. Context (an Undertale fan’s familiarity, the lyrics, and characters’ facial expressions) convey how bad dust and being covered in dust is.

At one point, the human fatally slashes Sans, and dusty-looking light pours out from him. When first watching it, I had the feeling they were going to use dusty-looking light beams as an easier-to-animate, aesthetically-pleasing workaround to a turning-to-dust animation. Yet, soon after, Sans’ body breaks apart into some kind of explosion of block-atoms, which is a closer approximation of turning to dust. (I didn’t even think they could do something that complex) The explosion of block-atoms could have worked, and would have been a creative and logical way to depict turning to dust. Yet, the block-atoms don’t turn grey/white, on- or off-screen, as expected[2](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/174382546390/review-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music#fn:2) during the extended death sequence.

Though technically impressive, the way the death sequence was handled made it look more like a nuclear cloud or an [“exploded”](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fstrangeremains.com%2F2016%2F11%2F06%2Fwhich-beauchene-invented-exploded-skull-technique%2F&t=MDViNGU1NDBhYTBlZDYxMzRkZmE5MTNkM2U4OTE1NThkYzc2MmVjNSxiZ3NIdXVvUA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F174382546390%2Freview-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music&m=1) skull than turning to dust. It has the inexplicable details of Sans’ face being perfectly intact, him having a red human SOUL, and some kind of purple energy circling in his disassembling body.

Now, I have heard of speculation (and read fanfics/fan comics) in which Sans and Papyrus are the reanimated skeletons of dead humans, and I have heard of the idea Sans (somehow) has Determination, but outright showing him with a human SOUL here makes no sense to me. A better choice would be to show a white, upside-down monster SOUL. (While only Boss Monster SOULs persist after death, Sans is not technically dead: the sequence is just an expanded-upon “dying” sequence)

Frisk also tries to covers their eyes at 3:32, suggesting Sans is emitting a strong light as he dies, like a bomb. This behavior might have made sense for Mettaton’s death (as he is a magic robot), but with Sans, him emitting a strong, explosion-light light as he dies does not make sense.

* * *

**Route Inconsistency**

I’m not against Neutral routes being referenced in a Genocide Route-based video; TechnicalAntonym’s video does so, after all. The trouble here is that there are no cues for which timeline is happening on-screen. (TechnicalAntonym’s video, in contrast, has cues, most obviously showing Frisk’s LV) Featuring Neutral/Pacifist moments and versions of characters in what seems to be a Genocide timeline makes it seem more like the Leaderless/Queen Alphys Neutral path, or a Genocide Route with Neutral route moments patched on. Route inconsistencies include the fact Undyne is apparently dealt a fatal blow with the first hit, but neither melts (Neutral Route) nor reforms into Undyne the Undying (Genocide Route).

* * *

**“So I’ve Got A Question For You”**

The video takes an interesting direction with the “so I have a question for you”[3](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/174382546390/review-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music#fn:3) part of the song. In TechnicalAntonym’s video, Sans asks this as he sneaks up on Frisk in Snowdin Forest. Frisk, who has gone through the Neutral, Pacifist, and Genocide Routes in that order, turns around with tears in their eyes and hugs Sans in response. In that video, it seems Frisk’s answer was “yes”, and Frisk has gone Pacifist because of Sans. (either because Frisk realized the error of their ways or just believed Sans was unbeatable)

In EnchantedMob™’s video, Sans asks the question in a really (i.e., excessively) friendly way in the Judgment Hall while walking up to Frisk. His “so I have a question for you” dialogue seems to be replacing his “there’s a glimmer of a good person inside you” dialogue as a friendly ploy to make Frisk stop fighting and make “his job a lot easier”. (Who knows, Sans might have been genuinely offering to forgive Frisk…port-mortem) While the dialogue switch isn’t perfectly accurate to the game, it counts as a [Adaptation Distillation](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Ftvtropes.org%2Fpmwiki%2Fpmwiki.php%2FLaconic%2FAdaptationDistillation&t=YzE5YWZmMTc1N2MzOGNmZjQxZDk2M2VmMWI3OTgxMjhhMDliYjlmMyxiZ3NIdXVvUA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F174382546390%2Freview-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music&m=1) matched to the lyrics.

Frisk’s response to Sans’ question is to slash Sans, and as he dies, seemingly happy music plays. In this take, Frisk’s answer to Sans’ question seems to be “no”, or at least “I’m not willing to listen”. Frisk then proceeds to the throne room, and as any _Undertale_ fan well-versed in the Genocide Route would know, from that point mercy is (literally) no longer an option and the world will be destroyed.

Frisk’s different answer here re-contextualizes the seemingly happy background music at this point, emphasizing the hints of despair or desperation that chiptune conveys so well.

* * *

**Scene Composition/Shots/Misc. Artistic Choices**

The video’s flaws are so severe, it compares poorly to both EnchantedMob™’s “Hard Drive” and [TechnicalAntonym’s version of the song.](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DK_pW3Y4Fbps&t=MzhjZWUzZTFhZDU2NTk4YzAxZDhjOWUxOTc1M2FmZDVkOGQzNTUyMSxiZ3NIdXVvUA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F174382546390%2Freview-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music&m=1) (Which EnchantedMob™ hadn’t seen while making the video) Though predominantly bad, like a curate’s egg parts of it are excellent.

While EnchantedMob™ poorly depicted Sans’ skeleton-ness in his eyebrows and mouth, there are some aspects they pulled off well. The way they designed Sans’ hand (seen most obviously at 0:18) looks good, and could very well be the best way to depict a skeletal hand in this style. At 0:39-0:40, Sans’ head swings a little faster than his body, but of course a cartoony skeleton could spin his skull around. It’s such a minor detail I think most people wouldn’t notice it, and it might even be a tiny animators’ gaffe with a handy in-universe explanation.

The “fighting Lesser Dog” sequence (1:03 to 1:08) was animated well. It was an unexpected (but fitting) take to make it from the first-person perspective. 1:57-2:10 was also particularly well-animated and shot sequence.

The sequence where the screen is filled with 9999s and slashing curves is a good, abstract way to indicate the human’s rampage, though toothless-Sans bobbing about and over-expressing himself on the right is a big distraction.

The Judgment Hall is literally pixel-perfect: it looks great in CGI like this, and the zoom through the area at 1:55-1:57 was a tiny moment of perfection.

The left-to-right panning at 2:08 where Sans suddenly appears as the camera moves was an excellent portrayal of Sans’ off-screen teleportation, though it is ruined by Sans’ bad model and gorilla-like hunching.

The animation of Sans’ bone bullets (2:26-2:36) looks a little off. I think it’s the way they seem to “wiggle” midair; bones don’t wiggle. They may have looked better if they manifested in the air, by Sans’ shoulders, and then immediately shot after Frisk.

Sans spreading his arms out as he brings up some Gaster Blasters (2:38-2:40) was a bad choice. Sans never raises both hands while expressing magic; he’s not a Mewtwo-like (Super Smash Bros depiction) [Full Contact Magic](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Ftvtropes.org%2Fpmwiki%2Fpmwiki.php%2FMain%2FFullContactMagic&t=NDA1NjVjZjNmY2NmNjBkNWYxYjg4Nzc2ZDMzODI1ZGI3NzhlYzA2MixiZ3NIdXVvUA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F174382546390%2Freview-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music&m=1) user. If Sans’ hands were in his pockets as the Gaster Blasters rose up, it would have looked both more menacing and more in-character.

As impressive as the Sans battle sequence is (though the Sans model and its expressions are a massive flaw) I do have a nitpick: Sans’ eye only flashes blue (and yellow; people often forget that) during his “strongest attack” (the first of his attacks) and his second-to-last attack. It’s common for people to show Sans’ eye as glowing all the time in the Genocide battle, or even just when angry or vengeful. I understand why it’s overused: it’s cool, and people might be too busy trying to survive his volley of attacks to pay attention to his expressions while he’s attacking.

The technical aspects (animation, cinematography, color composition) of the ending shot from 3:43-3:52 was very good, even if Frisk’s sashay-like walk was a little silly and more feminine than I’d like. (Though, who knows, perhaps all attempts to animate humans’ walk as realistically as possible in Minecraft style end up looking like a sashay)

* * *

* * *

  1. Sans never manifests eyebrows, and his pupils do shrink in shock when finally hit in the Genocide Route battle. [[Source]](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spriters-resource.com%2Fpc_computer%2Fundertale%2Fsheet%2F76017%2F&t=Y2E4YzQ4NjdkZjc3YjFlMTNlNzBlNTdhM2UxYjQyMzM3YTYxNTljYyxiZ3NIdXVvUA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F174382546390%2Freview-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music&m=1) [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/174382546390/review-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music#fnref:1)

  2. Battle scenes are always in black-and-white, except for rare color accents. Thus, monster dust seemingly being white may just be a product of the black-and-white style. No piles of monster dust are shown in the overworld, and its color isn’t mentioned. It’s just fan convention to depict it as grey/white, and it could easily be the same color as the monster it came from. That being said, I’d prefer depictions of grey/white monster dust to colorful monster dust. [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/174382546390/review-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music#fnref:2)

  3. The in-game dialogue is actually “so, i’ve got a question for ya.” Most of the time Sans uses “you”, not “ya”, so it’s possible the songwriter mis-remembered it based on Sans’ typical word choice. This is not a flaw: I just wanted to point it out for thoroughness’s sake. [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/174382546390/review-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music#fnref:3)


	2. Itemized Review

_(This is an itemized version of a review of an Undertale music video by EnchantedMob™. For the full review, see [here](http://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/174382546390/review-of-judgement-minecraft-undertale-music))_

**Tiny Flaws**\- Most people wouldn’t notice them, and I might not even notice if I wasn’t primed to be so thorough in my analysis. They have only a small effect on the quality of the video.

  * Asgore’s mouth. His beard makes his snout look better overall than Toriel’s, but his mouth is still bad.
  * Toriel has no horns at all, not even stencilled-on markings on the top surface of her cube-head.
  * I would have liked it more if Frisk had a blue heart symbol when Sans was tossing them around.
  * Undyne’s armor was brown, rather than purplish-grey
  * Toriel’s dance moves (the particular way she falls down/tries to dodge in 1:27)

**Medium Flaws**\- These are bigger flaws people are more likely to notice, but they might not tip the scales to “bad” if the rest of the video is very good, especially if there’s only a few of them.

  * Monsters not turning to dust.
  * Using Neutral/Pacifist versions of a character rather than the Genocide versions, in a context where the Genocide versions make sense
  * Toriel’s “Minecraft pig” snout
  * Sans spying on Frisk so conspicuously he seems like an obsessed stalker. (0:54-0:56)
  * Sans’ inexplicable death animation.
  * Papyrus’s model not having individual teeth/lines demarcating teeth

**Major Flaws** \- There are only two major flaws, but they’re so recurring, impossible to ignore, and important to the overall impression of the video they make the video, overall, poor-quality compared to EnchantedMob™’s Hard Drive music video and TechnicalAntonym’s music video of “Judgement”.

  * Sans’ mouth problems
  * Sans’ eyebrows

* * *

**Tiny Good Things** \- **Most people wouldn’t notice them, and I might not even notice if I wasn’t primed to be so thorough in my analysis.**

  * Sans’ skull spinning around like a cartoony skeleton.
  * The design of Sans’ hand.
  * The fact “Enchanted Mob & TryHard Ninja Present” is in a combination of the Papyrus and Comic Sans font.
  * Undyne’s red eyelids being used like eyebrows (unlike Sans, she actually has eyebrows. Nonetheless, this is an excellent artistic choice under the style’s constraints)

**Medium Good Things** \- More people would notice them, so it has a bigger effect on the perceived quality of the video.

  * (I liked the things in this part so much I upgraded them all to the “major good things” section)

**Major Good Things** \- Favorite moments in the video, where things were just perfect or it struck a chord with me somehow. (It still doesn’t outweigh the bad parts of the video, though)

  * The “Fighting Lesser Dog” sequence (1:03-1:09)
  * The “zoom through the Judgement Hall” sequence (1:55-1:57)
  * The “Walking Through the Judgement Hall” sequence, (1:56-2:06)
  * Sans suddenly appearing (2:08) in the Judgement Hall (though ruined by his gorilla-like hunching)

**Author's Note:**

> A retrospective: This was originally posted on Tumblr on May 29, 2018, and the video was made on May 22, 2018. On December 17, 2018, EnchantedMob™ later created another Undertale music video, "To the Bone". In that video, Sans' model does not have eyebrows, which was a big flaw noted in "Judgement". It's clear the animators of EnchantedMob™ do care about improving character design.


End file.
